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AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

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Mayo<br />

Castlegar, Co. Mayo<br />

Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.<br />

Grid Ref: M35647631 (135642/276311)<br />

SMR No: MA101-026<br />

Excavation Licence: 99E0037<br />

Excavation Duration/Year: 1999.<br />

Site Directors: S. Zajac (Mayo County Council).<br />

<strong>The</strong> site consists <strong>of</strong> a sub-circular enclosure set on the end <strong>of</strong> a gravel ridge. <strong>The</strong> internal<br />

diameter <strong>of</strong> the site measured 48m by 40m, and was enclosed by a slight bank, and a shallow<br />

ditch (2.5m wide by 0.2m deep) (Fig. 233). Excavation revealed that the ditch had been<br />

backfilled in three stages. Although the upper fill appeared to be modern, it was possible that<br />

the earlier fills may have been done deliberately after the abandonment <strong>of</strong> the enclosure.<br />

Bones extracted from sealed contexts within the lowest ditch fill were used for radiocarbon<br />

dating (see below).<br />

<strong>The</strong> interior <strong>of</strong> the site was badly degraded and had been largely destroyed by ridge-andfurrow<br />

agriculture. A souterrain, however, was discovered within the bounds <strong>of</strong> the enclosing<br />

ditch, along with a narrow cobbled walkway, which presumably linked it to a (now destroyed)<br />

above-ground structure. Finds from the site included five blue-glass beads; a fragment <strong>of</strong> a<br />

decorated blue-glass bracelet; whet stones; a bone knife handle; the broken base <strong>of</strong> a rotary<br />

quern; the fragment <strong>of</strong> a millstone; and a possible loom weight.<br />

Fig. 233: Plan <strong>of</strong> enclosure at Castlegar, Co. Mayo (after Zajac & Scully 2004, 25).<br />

492

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